Pre-Canon Timeline

501

So the title is fairly self-explanatory on this one – I finished my first time watching with all the mentioned dates and times swarming my head, and was randomly doing calculations every time I wanted to reference something in a fic, until eventually I went ‘I could just… write these down’. So I did that, and I added and checked them as I rewatched it, consulted other fandom resources, and then… sat on it for a couple months until my brain decided the stars were in position to share it. Which is today! With the ‘most useful reference’ gratitude awarded to the Compendium’s Timelines page, and the ‘most obscure reference’ awarded to the 1960s Commission Meeting Materials of the California POST (Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training).

The timeline covers the period between Starsky and Hutch’s births and 1975, when the pilot airs; it’s mostly focused on them, but does contain a couple of other people’s dates. I’ve tried to fully explain any deductive leaps I’ve had to take in order to make it work, and notate where there’s just straight-up unavoidable conflicts in the data the show gives us. If there’s something I’ve missed, or just an explanation for something I haven’t considered, please tell me (here, or as a comment on the google pdf (below), or on Discord or Tumblr) and I’ll add it!

I’ve copied the full thing in below, but the more easily accessible and effectively formatted way to get to it should hopefully be through Google Drive, at this link: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NQ1zsEFvHtGTuBISLTGIR7ADvdjitMA0/view?usp=sharing]

 

[1] Most dates are calculated backwards; the date of episode airing is taken to be (roughly) the date of the events happening. This is supported by The Golden Angel, which aired on Jan 16 1979 and contains a shot of a cheque made out that day dated Jan 16 1979.

 

[2] In all likelihood, is seen on the show by baby Starsky, who “watched it every day” (aawwww).

 

[3] Note that the first firm date we have for Starsky being in California isn’t until he starts at the Bay City Police Academy. However, the last firm date we have for him being in New York is 1958, as he says in Running that Sharman and he were “in the ninth grade together” (in New York). The only firm date we have on his father’s death is that he was still alive in 1951, when Starsky was eight, as stated in The Game.

I’ve placed Starsky’s move to California as early as possible, in 1958/9, based on a) the reused intro scene to Nightmare/The Crying Child, in which Starsky talks about regularly going to Uncle Elmo’s toy shop in Bay City, and b) the argument between Nicky and Starsky in Starsky’s Brother, in which Nicky – four years younger than Starsky – implies that he was still fairly young when Starsky left. Starsky would have been fifteen in 1958, which is already old enough to be pushing the credibility on the toy shop, but is still at least vaguely believable (given he still delights in model ships and toy trains). It is also likely he visited his relatives in California and had possibly been to the toy shop before he moved. This date would make Nicky eleven when he left, which seems to work with the implications of their argument.

Note, however, that that same Nightmare/The Crying Child intro also has Starsky saying that the guy running the business that is now where Uncle Elmo’s toy shop used to stand claims to have been there 21 years, which would place Uncle Elmo as going out of (/changing) business in 1955/6. It’s possible the store owner was generously rounding up; it’s also possible that Starsky didn’t actually get sent out to Cali all at once, but bounced back and forth and ending up spending, say, his entire school vacations in California and school term back in New York before he was moved out permanently, and that 1956-8 was during this transition period, which would allow for him having such a strong childhood attachment to Uncle Elmo’s and regarding it as ‘his neighbourhood’ during that time while also being in NY to go to school with Sharman in ninth grade.

Note also, as pointed out by Karen (bRomance FB group, 7/12/22) that Death In A Different Place sees Starsky stating that he ‘grew up next to’ John Blaine, presumably in California, and that Blaine taught him how to fight. It’s possible that this only applies as a statement to time after he was fifteen, but the ‘grew up’ comment seems a little odd then; however, this would easily align with the above hypothesis of Starsky spending a little time post-his father’s death moving back and forth between Cali and New York.

 

[4] Note that Jack actually says it’s a summer ‘in’ high school, but also says he expected not to see Hutch again after it; since both went to college we have good reason to believe both finished high school, and as such, this has been assumed to be an error/odd choice of words and the summer in question to be post-graduation.

 

[5] And possibly with Nancy Blake (Terror On The Docks) – we never get given a clue as to when they fell out of contact, but given that they knew each other in Minnesota and appeared to fall completely out of contact while Nancy still retained warm enough emotions to ask him to be in her wedding, it appears at least plausible that Hutch cut contact with everyone in Minnesota upon moving to California.

 

[6] Likely (ymmv on how likely) in pre-med, judging from comments made in Murder Ward & The Plague, as well as his success undercover in Deckwatch; note conflict in having to have the autonomic nervous system explained in Coffin For Starsky, but he was trying to be patient with Cheryl at the time.

 

[7] Starsky’s comment that Hutch has “been with [him] ever since he came into the department” [emphasis added] – this also seems to imply that Starsky was already in Metro, but Targets implies he wasn’t, so it could go either way for him. It could also be interpreted to mean Starsky joined the entire BCPD earlier than Hutch, but given that we know they met at the Academy, Starsky switching the words ‘precinct’ and ‘department’ around seems more likely. If Starsky was already at Metro, this could also explain his HfMO comment about “show[ing Hutch] the ropes” – not the ropes of detective work in general (although it is also possible he attained Detective status before Hutch), but the ropes of this precinct specifically.

 

[8] Assuming that Hutch wasn’t dating Kate while married to Vanessa, the date of their breakup as per Cover Girl places this as the earliest time they could have gotten married; even so, it’s a short engagement and a short marriage. Technically, it’s possible they didn’t get married until early ’73, but that makes an extremely short marriage even for someone as, uh, tempestuous as Van. The alternative possibility (as raised by Kandy, HfMO screening, SHarecon 2022) is that Hutch and Vanessa got married and then separated before Hutch started dating Kate, and there was a period of a year or two between separation and divorce; this could be backed up by, as pointed out by Babs (bRomance FB group, 7/12/22), the six-month waiting period necessitated by California law on divorces. It is also possible it’s the other way around – Vanessa and Hutch were both married and divorced earlier than this, and Vanessa is only referencing the last time she and Hutch talked, which was some time after the divorce, when she says ‘four years, six months, and twelve days’.

 

[9] Unless Hutch’s comment to Durniak can be interpreted as being a… different kind of partner (fwiw, ymmv, but if there’s any ‘partner’ reference in the entire show that feels like they’re not talking about detective partners, it’s this one).

 

[10] See note 8 for discussion of the Vanessa-Hutch timeline options.

 

[11] Luke says Hutch became ‘a sergeant first class in seven years’ – note that California PDs, at least today, separate the ranks of Sergeant and Detective so one can only become one or the other, but some PDs do allow you to hold both ranks; both Starsky and Hutch are referred to intermittently as Detective and Sergeant through the course of the series, and Starsky calls himself ‘Detective Sergeant’ in The Plague Part 2. Starsky is also called ‘Inspector First Grade’ in Black And Blue but we’re ignoring that in the rank equations, other than noting the ‘First’. Sergeant and Detective would likely be attained simultaneously; Hutch (and Starsky) likely became sergeants second or third class in 1972 upon attaining Detective, but didn’t become first class until 1975.